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Author on Reedsy Prompts since May, 2023
Submitted to Contest #243
A MATTER OF SURVIVAL The Shuttle He opened his eyes and knew, immediately, that something was amiss; no headache, no blurred vision, no sluggishness of his central nervous system, no disorientation of any kind. With growing trepidation, he turned to his right and, swallowing his anxiety, gazed at his digital, countdown screen: frozen at 9 years, 5 months, 3 weeks, 6 days and 19 hours. He had been in cryosleep for just 5 hours! What the f**k! Glen Thomas, Commander of Deep Space Shuttle, Commodore V11, noted for his coolness under pressur...
Submitted to Contest #240
THE DAY THE LIGHT WENT OUT The wind; it has always been the wind. His one, true companion throughout his sixty years of life. He knew it as it knew him. Ivan Rokosovic, born on the island of Sakhalin, one year after the Great War that claimed the life of his father, a Russian mariner, cherished the wind for it spoke to him, its natural movement of air and gases warning him of storms to come, caressing him in its gentle breezes, informing him, always, of life far away in the tropics, the subtropics, the distant poles. Its varied directions c...
Submitted to Contest #237
LA BELLE EPOQUE At best, his barista skills could be classed as rudimentary. In fact, the last time he had been forced to actually work a shift at the cliff face of a Wega 4 Group coffee maker, the type his establishments preferred, they had suffered more complaints over quality than actual coffees sold; most regulars, upon seeing that it was him, Jonah, manning the steaming wands, would simply retreat as unobtrusively as possible, preferring to chance a cup of instant from the kitchenette of their various workplaces. He couldn’t cook e...
Submitted to Contest #232
TITUS So, when all is said and done, this is how it’s to end? Is there no hope? None it seems. I am done for anyway but I am determined that Titus Oates will not be blamed for holding back the others. How did I end up in this God forsaken place with these people, these idiots, for whom I have no respect whatsoever? Under the dire leadership of this vain, self-glorious, mis-trusting, neurotic who has, somehow, led us to...what, our doom? Was there ever a chance that our quest, years in the planning, could, in reality, be achieved? Th...
Submitted to Contest #231
THE PHOENIX ARISES This story is true; compiled of facts from personal knowledge and conjecture derived from newspaper reports and there are three main actors.The first was a gangster from Chicago, name o’ Murray Humphreys, an associate of Al Capone and the brains of The Outfit, who, once Capone was imprisoned for tax evasion, left the windy city and settled in Norman, Oklahoma. Humphreys, a main player in Capone’s rise to the top, though he was not Italian, was revered for his money making ability.The second, another gangster, from New York...
SOFT OR HARD? The longest stake out I ever did lasted 72 hours but it was partly Donna’s fault. She doesn’t make many errors but she screwed up on the arrival date of my target and had me there a day sooner than necessary. Still, three whole days in one spot, sucks! In fact, this entire way of living sucks. I want out but I’ve been saying that for a while.I’m able to drift off in my mind while remaining on full alert, something I’ve mastered over the years. Sometimes, I’ll imagine I’m a pro fighter scrapping my way through different opponent...
Submitted to Contest #230
UNHOLY ALLIANCES After a sumptuous meal, all six diners, one by one, made their way into the magnificent library. Small talk, well oiled by unlimited champagne, broke out among the various attendees, scattered around as they were in the comfortable chairs and sofas that abounded. Three of the four walls were lined, floor to ceiling, with impressive tomes. The fourth side of this vast room was taken up by a huge fireplace and, as Horst, the butler, moved discreetly between the gathering, dispensing liberal amounts of bubbly, their host, Si...
SURVIVORS Isaac entered the darkness of the store hut, glad to be out of the freezing snow that was falling heavily, casting a white blanket across the entire camp. Isaac stamped the snow from his poorly clad feet, creating a puddle on the wooden floor before pushing the door closed with difficulty against the swirling wind. Pulling down a blanket from one of the many racks that filled this rough hewn, timber shack, each containing a plethora of tools and other stores, he draped the thick, woollen coverlet over his shoulders and huggin...
Submitted to Contest #228
CONSEQUENCES “Sir, I am not a bit hungry. I just want to go home”. “Son, you best eat it now, you hear? It could be a long time afore...” “Before what? I told you everything I know”. The older man ignored the pleadings of his prisoner and continued dishing out the beans from the pot in his hand. The younger occupant of this rough hewn log cabin, his expensive, tailor made, business suit ragged and crumpled from being forced into the rear of the SUV that had abducted him from the basement car park of his business office, earlier t...
Submitted to Contest #225
A FAMILY AFFAIR What the hell are you doing back here, James, old chap? I ask myself this for the umpteenth time. I’d sworn never to set foot in this house again after the debacle of the will but, maybe, just maybe, she is now looking to make things right. I smoke another spliff. At the thought of my mother, my bete- noire, I feel the sudden craving for a real fix possess my body.Surely to God, logic dictates that, as the eldest, I should be named as the rightful heir to Blandford. It’s what father would have wanted, would have ensured, if t...
Submitted to Contest #222
A HILL O’ BEANS Born and raised in Pennsylvania, when I was 14 years of age, my life crumbled when my parents were killed in an automobile accident and, for two weeks, I was placed in the local orphanage while attempts were made to contact those that were tenuously related in the hope that one of them would take me in as one of their family.Though grieving, I understood, vaguely, that two families had come forward: a couple from New York who had one child, a girl around my age, and another from Tennessee who had a grown up son; both related ...
CRY BABYAs he climbed the sheer face of the cliff ahead of her, he indicated, with a pointing of his foot, where she should next place her hand. In this manner, slowly but surely, they finally reached the summit. It was the first time that she had managed to achieve the full climb and she collapsed, exhausted, the bitter wind lashing her face.“We go back”, he said, quietly.She knew that she could not argue with him; his word was law. Yet, the combination of cold, fatigue and the daunting task of descending this rocky outcrop so soon, was jus...
Submitted to Contest #221
VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED For a few brief minutes, Hannah was able to look back on the emerald green vista of her homeland and breathe the cool, clean Irish air before she was herded below to her quarters in the hold of the John Knox, the ship that was to carry her and three hundred more of her country folk to the promised land of British North America.Like most, she had slaved to raise the two pounds needed for her fare so that she could join her mother, brother and sister who had gone before her, six months earlier. They had promised to write a...
Submitted to Contest #220
FUNNY GUY When I was a boy, I didn’t have any friends. It never really concerned me because I was quite content with my own company. Also, the fact that I was a sickly boy probably had a lot to do with it; no, definitely, had a great deal to do with it.We lived at the top of a three family house; an Irish three family house on 5th and San Pedro. Times were hard, not that I really knew what that meant but I heard my parents saying it all the time, so I figured they had to know what they were talking about. We were considered fortunate by the ...
Submitted to Contest #219
PRIMAL INSTINCT ‘All clear’, growled Rex, from the doorway.The other attendees left their normal stations and re-grouped round the dusty floor.Angus, the self-styled elder of the gathering, cleared his throat before speaking.‘Right, where were we?’‘Methane; you had started to talk about methane, Angus’.‘Ah, yes. Thank you, Daisy. Yes, methane. It seems to be all we hear about at the moment; methane this, methane that. It’s all getting blown out of proportion...’‘What is it, exactly?’‘Larry, perhaps you can explain it to Daisy and the others ...
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